Thirty years of murder, suspicion and tension is finally over in Wichita this weekend. Wichita Police along with numerous other agencies have finally arrested the BTK (Bind, Torture & Kill) strangler. BTK was responsible for a series of 8 (and possibly 2 more) murders in Kansas’ largest city.
Wichita has approximately 500,000 residents but maintains a small town atmosphere. So needless to say an event like this is easily the biggest story of the year in the otherwise quiet city.
There are all kinds of stories out there outlining the hard facts of this case so I won’t go into them. There are several aspects that strike me as odd about this story. First is the profile of the alleged killer. He is not the creepy bearded loner stereotype that most people expected. Instead he is a 59 year old man complete with wife & kids, decent job and membership at a local church. I live in Wichita, so when I am out on a jog at night and I start imagining all the sweet ninja-like moves I would perform on this guy if he tried to accost me I didn’t exactly envision Dennis Rader. Secondly there is the complete idiocy of the killer. He had gone underground and virtually disappeared from the radar for years. However his desire for attention was so great that rather than living out the rest of his life, he chose to re-establish contact with the police in March of 2003; a choice that eventually led to his capture.
I’m sure the goal of a serial killer is to gain infamy and recognition, not to kill a few people and ride off into the sunset. So I guess in the end he got exactly what he wanted.
Blogs covering:
Michelle Malkin
Interesting-Participant
Mind of Mog
The Blog is Full of Crap
News Coverage:
KAKE TV
KSN
KWCH
Fox News
Gabe Hughes at 12:17 am
Maybe not a loner…but he did have a beard!
Comment by Anonymous — February 27, 2005 @ 1:44 am